Page 58 of All the Ugly Things
My breath caught when I took in his profile, hard jaw, eyes narrowed, obvious even with the curved view of his face in a direction I never wanted to look again.
Manny’s apartment.
Hudson said something to someone I couldn’t see but whatever it was looked scary, and then banged on my door again.
Leaving on the security chain, I glared at him through the small opening. “I told you to leave me alone.”
“Be pissed at me all you want but if you didn’t have to leave here before now, after I just talked to that fucking jackass, you’d be leaving anyway so you might as well let me in so I can explain.”
He knew. Blood rushed from my face, chilling me to my core.
Hudson, astute asshole he was, noticed. His arm came up and propped up next to my door and every muscle I could see on him tightened. “Tell me that dick that just called you a cunt isn’t the guy who did that to you. Better yet, tell me it was him so I have an even better reason to go rip off his dick.”
All of my encounters with Hudson suddenly exhausted me. The man could be bold and arrogant, soft-hearted and kind. He could laugh as easily as he scowled, and after the last two days, I didn’t have the energy for any of it. I blew out a breath. “None of this concerns you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Because it’s none of your damn business!”God! Why couldn’t they just leave me alone!
No one in my entire life had ever made me lose control of my temper so quickly. In my home, we couldn’t show any emotion lest Dad would hear of it, and in prison, being emotional was even worse. It’d get you sent to solitary or it’d get your ass kicked.
Either way, around Hudson Ifeltand I felt too much and it was equally dangerous.
I took in his heaving chest, his jutted jaw, and the way his dark eyes held a brewing storm without blinking and caved.
Damn him.
“You’re not leaving until I open this door, are you?”
“At least not until that jackhole leaves. No.”
“Fine.” Without energy to deal with this, I definitely didn’t have the energy to fight this stubborn man. “Hold on.”
There was minimum satisfaction to my soul as I watched his features soften right before I slammed the door shut on his face. After shoving the chair out of the way fully, I gave my dump of a home a quick scan.
Why was I so damn mad about the chance to get out of this dump in the first place?
The lies… right.
I quickly threw my dirty clothes into the hamper, slapped down the lid, and tossed my comforter over the small, twin bed. No amount of cleaning would make it look respectable, but Hudson didn’t need to see my threadbare sheets and dirty underwear. The rest of the apartment was equally useless, but at least tidy. I didn’t have enough to clutter to make a mess of things anyway.
Figuring I’d left Hudson to stew long enough, I went back to the door and opened it.
“No judging,” I declared, stepping out of the way.
“Wouldn’t think of it.” He stepped over the threshold and my home shrunk in size with his presence. Like his masculinity had the ability to suck the oxygen out of the room and shrink the size simply due to all that was him.
“I didn’t know you lived here.”
He hadn’t so much as scanned my living space. No eye twitch. No frown at my humble abode. He held a manila envelope in his hand I suspected was the same as the one I threw at his feet and maintained an unnerving amount of eye contact.
At least he wasn’t beating around the bush.
“You said that. I’m not certain I believe it.”
“We’ve been working on this project for over a year. Finally took ownership months ago from the landlords and they were all supposed to communicate the change before their departure. We also followed up with notices since. But all of this started before my dad saw you.”
I’d spent at least twenty-four hours hoping I could trust them, hoping they were who they seemed to be. Hoping, most of all, it could work out if I went to work for them. But hope was a fickle thing. The flame could be extinguished as easily as it was lit. And still, I was tempted to believe him.
